La Pinada, Salou, Spain 2018 Day 1

In the May half term we booked a holiday for 14 nights to La Pinada, Salou on the South East coast of Spain. We were staying in the Estival Park resort which was where we went 7 years ago when the boys were around 3 years old and was not even conceived. In the past I have never been the sort of person to go back to the same resort twice as there is so much of this world to see, however the boys couldn't remember much about Spain, Holly had never been and we knew that the resort was a great family friendly place with a superb water park. We did give the kids the option of Disney Land Paris plus a Summer camping holiday, or the all inclusive beach holiday somewhere in the Med, all 3 unanimously shoes the later.

 

We were very constrained on dates when we could travel as we wanted to maximise the half term and a teacher training day in order to minimise the amount of time we pulled the kids out of school. We also had to try and get a booking for somewhere between mid May and mid June as the prices start going up ridiculously once you get in to peak season. The final constraint in our travel plans was that we had to be back home for June 9th ready for the FG presentation day which I couldn't miss. In the end we got the dates perfect and the only negative was Brandon had to miss one football tournament.

 

Anyway we had a very early start leaving home at about 1.30am to get to Gatwick for around 3am. The kids don't mind this and were all up and buzzing with excitement in the drive to the airport. The flight to Reus airport is under 2 hours which is perfect for the kids. So we arrived in Reus before lunch and then only had about a 15-20 min transfer to the hotel. So all in all it was a very easy journey and we were soon checking in to our room and then heading down for our first all inclusive lunch.

 

After lunch we spent the first day just chilling in the hotel pool and then taking a brief walk along the beautiful La Pinada beach which was only about a 400m walk through the hotel complex. The weather was a very nice mid 20's which is just perfect with kids and both the pools and the sea had already warmed sufficiently for you to be comfortable swimming in them. Other then that not much else to report from Day 1 as we were all tired from the early start and very soon after dinner we decided to get an early night ready for our first full day.

 

Joshua and Tina on our Tui flight heading off to sunny Spain.

Josh and Holly having cuddles on the plane.

We land mid morning in a very warm, sunny Spain.

Now to get through passport control and collect our luggage.

Reus airport was very small and quiet.

I don't remember this military plane being on display outside the front of the airport from our last visit.

As a family of 5 we ended up with 2 rooms so this was Tina's and Holly's. Then me and the boys shared the room next door. Holly called the boys room the smelly one!

Joshua and Holly enjoying some fun time in the hotel pool.

Hotel 1 has a lovely pool with a gazebo bar in the centre of the pool.

Brandon playing with the water bomb in the pool/

 

Little Holly with her watering can, probably about the same age as Joshua was the first time we came to Estival Park.

Joshua playing bat and ball in the pool.

Not sure Tina wanted that watering can poured all over her.

Our second holiday to the lovely Estival Park resort.

Joshua borrowed my camera to take some pictures of the pool and also some underwater shots.

Joshua taking a selfie in the pool.

In the afternoon myself and Josh had a go at some rifle shooting, Joshua was poor and didn't hit the target once.

I was a little better and managed to at least score.

A nice evening walk along the beautiful La Pinada beach in Salou.

Joshua and Brandon all dressed up for dinner and taking a nice stroll in the sand.

Me and the boys were amazed by the trunk of this tree and the way it was all intertwined.

Prior to dinner Holly found the shaded play area and wasn't in a rush to come out for some food.

Holly on a statue horse outside the Hotel II restaurant.

Then an elephant.

And finally the Spanish bull. If you check back on the 2011 blog posts you can see very similar pictures of the boys on all three of these statues as well.